The New York City school reform: consequences for supervision of instruction

This paper reports on the status of instructional supervision within the current New York City school reform movement. Reports from interviews with New York City public school teachers demonstrate the prevalence of directive, checklist and narrative approaches to supervision, raising serious questions for the future of instructional supervision. Although reform measures address the need for increased supervision and professional development, principals and their assistants report that they perform predominantly non-instructional duties and evaluative functions. Supervision, as a means to promote instructional dialogue to improve teaching in the classroom, has been the responsibility primarily, although unofficially, of coaches. Based on data collected from this mixed method study, the instructional supervisory function as practiced by New York City administrators has been eclipsed by the enormity of the reform measures.